ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange

I don't spend much time online during the weekends, unless it's absolutely necessary – such as reading movie listings or checking out how my kid's penguin is faring. I especially avoid working on weekends whenever possible, but this usually means that I spend the first few minutes of every Monday sipping coffee and searching online news for what happened while I was offline. This catching-up process is streamlined now that I've discovered Lisa Hoover's Monday Minute column. Lisa provides a nice little snapshot of what went on in the world of IT over the weekend. Mondays aren't my favorite, so I appreciate any help I can get.

Sarah Stokely wrote a Linux.conf.au event report for our April issue of Linux Pro Magazine, which is trickling into the printer as I type. I noticed she has a lot of other thoughtful articles on her blog, The Open Source Report, including coverage of women in open source. For example, Sarah observes that none of the 10 winners of the Google Highly Open Participation competition are women. Sarah also wrote an excellent article about the PR problem in Linux. I'm constantly amazed at how few people outside our community understand the worldwide impact of open source. (In fact, I had to explain to a couple of my non-tech-savvy friends that I don't actually write an "open sores"...

I don't know how I got here, but it was a happy accident stumbling across the Women Who Tech: A TeleSummit for Women in Technology page. The March 31st TeleSummit includes an Open Source for Women panel:
This panel will explore how to get women more involved in developing technology and contributing to Open Source and Open Standards. What are the current barriers? What can we do to break these barriers?
Panelists: Michelle Murrain, NOSI, Leslie Hawthorn, Google Moderator: Kaliya Hamlin, She’s Geeky And who wouldn't want to attend a free TeleSummit? Sadly, this humble ROSE Blog isn't listed yet, but you can find other great links listed on the Women Who Tech Resources page.

On a scale from 1 to 12, I'd give SCALE 6x a dozen roses because it was one of the best conference experiences I've ever had. The SCALE staff set the tone – they were professional, friendly, helpful, and wonderful hosts. Plus, they get bonus points for the ladies t-shirt in my attendee bag. SCALE also draws a wonderful mix of attendees, vendors, and speakers. On Friday, February 8th, I learned a bunch from the Women in Open Source conference. Allison Randall's first talk, The Art of Conference Presentations, was a hard act to follow. I took notes and plan to make a check-list for any future public speaking engagements. In the next talk, From the Keyboard to the Boardroom and Back...

Linux Pro Magazine World News columnist Patricia Jung sent in this announcement: The call for lectures for the 11th Informatica Feminale summer university for women in IT in Bremen and Freiburg closes February 23. Jung says that although the announcement isn't in English, it invites English-speaking contributions. Jung also says that speakers at former Informatica Feminale summer universities include Dr. Frances Grundy of Keele University and Google's Zaheda Bhorat.

Dice released the results of their 2007 Salary Survey and the good news is that salaries increased for tech professionals. The bad news is that only men enjoyed this increase – women's salaries held steady, increasing the gender gap by 11.9 percent (from 9.7 percent in 2006). According to the survey, "Satisfaction remained high among tech workers: more than 50 percent of respondents are happy with their salaries." I suspect that women who were surveyed are less satisfied after seeing the survey results. The survey also indicated that the gender gap is smaller among consultants (8.9 percent). Furthermore, "Lower skilled positions such as technical support and systems...